State Sen. Hansen Clarke's
Democratic primary victory over longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Carolyn
Cheeks Kilpatrick represented one of the highs in his life.

That's not to say he hasn't known deep lows as well.

Clarke's
father died when he was 8, and he struggled to survive on the hard
streets of Detroit as a kid. As a young adult, he was cut off from food
stamps "and was on my way out of life."

But he righted the ship,
got an Ivy League education and earned a law degree from Georgetown
before embarking on a career in public service that culminated in
Tuesday's win over the seven-term Kilpatrick.

He's all but assured
of a general election victory in the heavily Democratic 13th District,
and the 53-year-old Clarke says he's the perfect person to represent his
hometown in Washington, considering how well he can relate to its
struggles.

"The need is so great here in this city right now. The
economic times are much worse than they were in the 1980s when I was on
public assistance," he said Wednesday in an interview with The
Associated Press.

Term limits prevented Clarke from running again
for state Senate and he flirted with a run for governor before deciding
to try for Congress. He says voters chose him because he's "a fighter
and will work for them. When I said stuff, they know I actually meant
it.

"That's why."

Not all his political campaigns have been
successful. He finished fourth in a 12-person nonpartisan Detroit
mayoral primary in 2005. Then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Carolyn Cheeks
Kilpatrick's son, received the second-most votes and eventually won
re-election.

But Kwame Kilpatrick's ensuing legal troubles — he's
now in prison and facing federal tax and fraud charges — may have helped
Clarke to victory Tuesday.

For Clarke, his journey starts and ends with his mother, whom he says "sacrificed everything for me."

Thelma
Clarke worked as a school crossing guard, cleaned homes and even played
numbers in a street lottery to provide for her son and send him to a
New England prep school when his adult education certificate from a
local high school didn't impress colleges.

"She was extraordinary.
She never bought anything for herself," Clarke said. "She dressed in
old, used men's clothes and paid to send me to the oldest prep school in
the United States."

"My mother, man, she was a hell of a lady," he said.

Her
hard work paid off when Clarke parlayed his studies at The Governor's
Academy in Byfield, Mass., into a scholarship to Cornell University. But
then his mother died when he was 19, sending Clarke into a downward
spiral.

He dropped out of school, did odd jobs and was slowly drifting away.

"I gave up hope. I'd really given up," he said.

That's when a second savior stepped forward.

Clarke
hooked up with the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, a
government program that helped low-income people find work. He got a job
in the attendance office of a Detroit high school, "got my life back
together" and re-enrolled at Cornell at the age of 25.

There, he
had his first taste for politics, beating Ann Coulter — now a national
conservative commentator — in a race for student trustee. He eventually
became president of his class, earned a degree in painting in 1984 and
entered Georgetown Law.

He has since served as chief of staff to
fellow Detroiter and U.S. Rep. John Conyers in 1989-90 and was elected
to the state House in 1990, 1998 and 2000 and to the Michigan Senate in
2002 and 2006.

In Lansing, Clarke has pushed for a moratorium on
mortgage foreclosures in Michigan and stronger consumer protections for
those who face foreclosure. He has introduced bills calling for tougher
penalties against hate crimes or bias-motivated crimes.

He even
once suggested Michigan's state pension fund should consider buying
Detroit's downtown Renaissance Center high-rise from General Motors and
then leasing it back to the automaker.

Like most Democrats in the
Michigan Senate, though, Clarke has had relatively few bills pass in the
Republican-led chamber. Two of his bills in the current legislative
session — one related to probate trusts and one pertaining to allowing
liquor licenses at Wayne State University — have passed and become state
law.

Those who know Clarke describe him as easygoing and affable, but mostly as someone who legitimately cares about others.

He
campaigned for Congress in soup kitchens and homeless shelters and a
couple of years ago had most of his 15-inch-long locks cut off so they
could be donated to a 7-year-old Ohio girl who was accidentally burned
with grease as a baby and was unable to grow new hair.

Steve
Tobocman, a former state representative and longtime friend and
colleague of Clarke's, describes him as "incredibly warm, engaging and
funny."

"I think he brings a certain level of excitement and
passion for people," Tobocman said. "It will be interesting to see him
transition those skills into working in Congress."

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Associated Press writers Tim Martin in Lansing and Nicquel Terry in Detroit contributed to this report.